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12/07/2009
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created by Paul Griffiths

Tough Trickery

Some of the PWA’s best freestylers tell us which moves they find the most difficult to complete.

When you watch the guys on tour they seem to land an endless amount of complex tricks without even getting their ankles wet. Not only that, but they do them in their heats whilst under a huge amount of pressure to perform in front of both the world’s press and the judges.

The newest of moves all look extremely difficult and obviously require a huge amount of skill and natural ability to perform with style. There must be tricks which the pros are scared of trying in a heat for fear of not making it, but which ones are they? Over to the guys to reveal all:

Egor Popretinskiy (JP, NeilPryde)

“Now the most difficult moves are a combination of the most difficult tricks. For example, a mixture of spocks and punetas with burners, air funnels, culos, chachoos and konos, all with either a planing or dry exit from the trick. Last season on tour, the best riders even managed to land forward loops into double flakas, flakas into shakas, and flakas into ponchs. I’m not sure what will be the most difficult trick on tour next year, but I’d be really interested to know as one of the competitors!”

Marcilio Browne (Fanatic, North, MFC)

“The puneta kono seems to be extremely hard to land, I’m working on it though!”

Steven Van Broeckhoven (F2, MauiSails)

“I think the new combinations like the bongka, flaka shaka and flaka ponch are the toughest. All of these moves have to be done at full power, otherwise you haven’t got any chance of rotating around the second move.”

Taty Frans (Starboard, MauiSails)

“It’s difficult to say which is the hardest move because it all depends on the conditions. But, I think the air bob, air funnel and the proper switch kono are amongst the hardest - I believe only Tonky and Kiri can land those exactly how they should be done.”

Kiri Thode (Starboard, Gaastra)

“Some moves can be hard but I believe that if you’re really into freestyle, and you practice a lot, you’ll be able to land almost anything. If you sail almost everyday then you’ll know what to do with your gear and you’ll understand the whole process better. But, if you only sail a couple of times a week, or even just a few times a month, then it becomes far more difficult.”

Andre Paskowski (Fanatic, North)

“The hardest move is always the newest one on the scene. You go out there and crash a 1000 times over and your motivation starts to drain, but then when it works, it’s the best feeling in the world.”